Latest updates

Oh, what a Jam! Fantastic building, testing and iterating global Jammers. Thank you for making #GGovJam a hugely rewarding and successful event. Melbourne is grateful to you all for supporting us to be your HQ host city.

As cities around the world finished upload their prototypes and showing us how they interpreted the theme, strangers have become friends, we've laughed, we've celebrated, we've been confused, we've been anxious, and together we've made a global jam. Congratulations to you all. To all the hosts, your supporters and sponsors, we salute you. Your love, energy and goodwill is at the heart of the Jam. To the citizens and public servants who've jammed, we salute you, there are no jams without jammers - we hope you take what you've learned and change the worlds around you.

To the Global HQ, all class, grace and humour, Melbourne is so grateful to have hosted you. We've learned so much, cuddled a lot and most importantly, laughed and laughed and laughed. Melbourne's Jam community hopes to see you all in the near future, in other jams and beyond. Keep up with our locations page to follow the world as they complete their challenges and keep the conversation going via the #GGovJam hashtag.

Want to see what is happening all over the world as public servants, citizens and innovation specialists Jam together to rock public service? Check out the hashtag #GGovJam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo and other social media. And check out the Secret Theme video which opened the Jam all over the world. This year's film was made by the Melbourne team who hosted Global HQ. Thanks guys!

Global GovJam 2017 has kicked off across the world, with more than 25 cities jamming and designing to explore we might serve our citizens better. We have citizens, public servants, designers and collaborators in the rooms and on the streets.

The Melbourne team is thrilled to host HQ this year as part of the 5th Anniversary of GovJam, including familiar faces and past jammers from GovJam's history. Keep an eye out for the #GGovJam hashtag on your favourite social media platform to keep up with the buzz!

If you care about public services, want to explore new ways of citizen-centric innovation or are interested in the role of design in public service, you should host a #GGovJam site! It can be as small as your kitchen table, or as big as a conference centre. You don't need any experience, just a curious mind and a few collaborators.

Got questions? Just ping us at help@govjam.org, and our team of volunteers will do their best to help you!

(Note: the main days of #GGovJam are Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th of May. Local Jams may optionally decide to start on Tuesday 16th May in the afternoon. If you live in a country with a non-Western working week, you may also start a day earler. )

Hundreds of Jammers joined together in an amazing 48-hour wave that travelled round the world through 32 cities on 5 continents.
Inspired by one Secret Theme, we worked together at pace, made prototypes, tested them, failed fast and made them again.
We all learned new ways of addressing old issues, made new connections and had a lot of fun in the process.
Thanks to everyone who jammed, mentored and facilitated at a the Jam.
Thanks to the sponsors, venues and other people who made each local Jam happen.
And a special thank you to the amazing individuals who volunteered to host a Jam in their city. Without them, there would be no Jams.
Together you rocked the world of public services!
It wouldn't be a Global Jam without the global team:
Natasche, Markus and Adam, the core team behind all the Global Jams
Matt, Kathryn and the Leeds GovJam volunteers who hosted the Global GovJam HQ for 2016
Ruth who co-initiated the Global GovJam in 2012 and was a great source of help and advice this year & Rafael Poiate who volunteered from Sao Paulo.
We have learned loads and been humbled by the dedication and creativity of Hosts and Jammers around the World.
What happens next? We hope you will take the learning, new connections and Jam spirit back to your everyday life and work. There's no need to wait for the Jam to move forward by showing, not telling; prototypes, not concepts; and doing, not talking.
We're already looking forward to the Global GovJam 2017. We hope you are too!
YOU ARE THE JAM.

Here is the video which opened the 2016 Global GovJam in more than 30 cities. This video helps paint a picture of the many reasons why jammers, hosts and govs jam, it shares some of the ideas behind jamming and it also shows the Secret Theme of the Jam.
A special Thanks to our Special Guests and to our amazing team of volunteers (the lovely people you see on the video and many more brilliant people behind the "screen") :)

Many people at Global GovJam use a service design approach, so it's great that this year's Jam co-incides with the new "service design day", an initiative by our friends at the Service Design Network. All over the world, people are celebrating service design under the hashtag #servicedesignday. Find out more at the SDN website!

We are Jamming! The Jammers in Rome are the first to know the Secret Theme, with their colleagues in Australia and eastern Asia soon to follow. In just a few hours public servants, citizens and innovation specialists will be working together in around 25 cities to rock the world of public service. Join us at #GGovJam!

Could you host GGovJam in your town or city? Here’s how to get on the map...

Be ready to find and set up up a suitable location for the Jam (workspace, connectivity, physical requirements). You do NOT need to do this before you register - in fact, it's better to register first. Sometimes, locations will contact you!

Be open to everyone, don't push your product or company. Jam on the shared Global Secret Theme.

Later, be ready to handle registrations and participant lists (this can be as simple as a Facebook or Eventbrite page...)

Be part of the organisers' community (mostly on our Basecamp, but on other platforms too)..

Be non-profit.

Police the rules, keep the deadlines.

Publicise your event, and publish the results.

Have fun!

2) If you're OK with the rules, simply shoot us an email marked "I wanna host!" to help@govjam.org. Please include:

The name and email address of the responsible Jam organiser (this will not be published if you do not want us to - if so please inform us)

Jam name (please see the rules on Jam names at the Extended FAQ under "What should I call my Jam?")

Location (Continent, country)

Location Details (Address + zip code - this can be changed later, but we need an initial reference for your jam to be on the map)

Public e-mail address for participants to get in touch with your Jam team

Public phone number for participants to get in touch with your Jam team

Two people to be registered from you jam on our hosts community Basecamp site (name + email + optional phone number for each)

3) Rock the public sector!

PS - Anyone can host a jam, so sometimes a city can have more than one team wanting to host a jam. Although that would be possible, since there is no exclusivity in the jam, based on our experience one big Jam is a lot more effective and fun than 2 or 3 smaller jams. See the FAQ for more details. :)